March was a month of measles and oil fever (neither fatal!). Both the Ira and Will Cain families suffered from measles; Will’s family had seven cases at once! Sweet Mistress Spring proved fickle by producing 4 1/2 inches of snow on the level. It snowed all of one day, but much melted as it fell. It was worth money to wheat and oats.
The Story Theater was closed for one week as it was being completely overhauled and painted inside and out. The walls were finished in grey and the lobby in delft blue, with the panels outlined in mahogany. All woodwork was finished in white. The cooling system was enlarged so that air in the theater would be changed every thirty seconds. A colored electric sign eight feet long and five feet wide was added that announced the nightly picture.
African-Americans working on the Bob Keen ranch killed a lynx, shooting him twelve times before killing him. They had been hunting it for several days as it had been killing calves. The cat measures 50 inches from nose to the tip of the tail. It had been several years since a lynx was seen in this part of the country.
The Ku Klux Klan visited one of the Sun. evening Baptist church services. About 75 Klansmen in full regalia carrying the American Flag and Holy Bible entered the church, gave a liberal donation and quietly took their seats. At the conclusion of the sermon, the Klansmen asked permission to speak. Their representative very forcibly explained the Klan’s position and relation to the church in that the Klan was anti-evil. Mr. Alonzo E. Young who was the custodian of the church and had the previous misfortune of losing a limb, was called to the pulpit and the speaker presented him with an artificial limb. Mr. Young deeply appreciated the gift and thought the KKK was composed of real Christian men. At the end of the service, the Klansmen filed out and disappeared into the dark.
The Carter Oil Co. added a third producer to their wells with they drilled on their Sayre location. The well was to be the best one drilled in that part of the field and reportedly made about 600 barrels of oil daily.
Joseph D. Garnett’s building on Fifth and Main Sts. was destroyed by fire early in the month. An oil stove exploded in the room occupied by A. Granville Beck who ran the auto livery (taxi service). Other parts of the building were occupied by Maddox Tire Shop and Earl’s Quality Print Shop. The firemen prevented the flames from spreading but were unable to save the Garnett building. This was one of the oldest buildings in town, finished early in 1902 and occupied then by Bonebrake Hardware. It was the first permanent building in town and was made of stone. The print plant was a total loss and housed the Elk City Press, which subsequently purchased an entire new plant. There was not enough water pressure to throw a stream across the sidewalk and the fire chief had to order high pressure pumps put to work.
Charles C. Miller won the enviable reputation of making Elk City the Broom Corn King of the world. He was connected with the business for twenty years. When he was a small boy, he worked in broom corn on his father’s farm and later in large factories long enough to learn to grade corn and select the best grade corn brooms with the least possible waste. It was his aim to breed the kind of fiber and head that manufacturers wanted for their high-class brooms. He sold seed corn in 26 different states and Mexico. The biggest seed crop Miller raised was in 1922 when he sold 100,000 pounds. He planted 150-200 acres in broom corn and raised from 1500-2500 bushels according to the weather.
With the completion of Third St. paving, Elk City boasted two paved streets in the residential area and with pavement in the business section made, in all, forty blocks of paving.
Luanne R. Eisler authored this article, which was taken from items published in The Carter Express, The Elk City Press and The Elk City News-Democrat; you can find these newspapers on microfilm at the Elk City Carnegie Library; Ancestry. com provided supplementary information.
